On this day in 2011 - Bowlers, Gayle star as RCB beat RR
The arrival of Jamaican Chris Gayle had turned the fortunes around for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2011 season. The team which only had one win from its first five games had now suddenly won 5 in a row. There could not have been a starker contrast than the first and the next five of the first ten games of the season. RCB, high on confidence were up against the Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mann Singh stadium in Jaipur. A win would take the team a step closer to the playoffs; an improbable scenario after the first five games of the season.
Being put in to bat, Rajasthan Royals got off to a solid start, not losing any wickets in the powerplay. The Watson-Dravid opening combo, however, never really managed to score quickly. Despite all the wickets still intact, the run rate did not exceed 8 an over at any stage of their partnership. S Aravind was brought back for the tenth over of the innings, and the over turned the game in RCB’s favor. Shane Watson, trying to give the run rate a facelift, muscled one straight to AB De Villiers at long-off. Two balls later, Rahul Dravid hit one back to Aravind, who completed the caught and bowled. Rajasthan were now in trouble, with the scoring rate struggling and two wickets down.
Sreenath Aravind was declared the man of the match for picking up 3 crucial wickets
Rajasthan struggled through the middle overs to manage any sort of acceleration. Ajinkya Rahane cleared the fence off Abrar Kazi, but a miscommunication between him and Botha left Rahane stranded, who had just started to look good. Rajasthan’s insipid batting performance continued till the end of their quota of overs. Only one boundary came in the last six overs of the innings. On a surface that looked like a batting paradise, the uninspiring Rajasthan batting unit could only muster 146 and lost 6 wickets.
The task for the Royal Challengers Bangalore when they came out to bat was simple. A good start would be half the job done. An in-form Gayle and Dilshan gave RCB just that. The first four overs all going for at least 10 runs and at least two boundaries scored in each of the powerplay overs meant RCB were well on their way in the pursuit of a paltry target. The final over of the powerplay yielded 16 runs, Chris Gayle going after the off-spin of Johan Botha. RCB’s innings so far could not be more cheese to Rajasthan’s chalk.
Rajasthan got a breakthrough as Dilshan tried to slog sweep Shane Warne, but only managed to find Ross Taylor at deep mid-wicket. Virat Kohli joined Gayle in the middle with less than a run-a-ball needed. The situation called for sensible batting, and the duo were clinical in their approach. The only signs of aggression came in the 15th over, when Gayle decided to finish off the game quickly with only 30 more runs required. He took on Shane Warne and cleared the long-off fence; he swept the next ball for another boundary, and the game was now speeding towards its conclusion.
The last 20 runs were knocked off without any hiccups within two more overs. The Gayle-Kohli partnership remained undefeated on 83 runs. Chris Gayle remained not out on 70 off 44 balls. RCB won the game with 18 balls and 9 wickets to spare, and had registered their sixth win in a row.
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